Mindfulness practices can make such a profound impact on the seemingly small, everyday interactions in life – and this can add up to major positive changes for patients. That’s why I asked my friend Elisha Goldstein, PhD to share some insights on using mindfulness in clinical practice. Elisha is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice, Co-founder of The Mindfulness Center for Psychotherapy and Psychiatry in West Los Angeles, and author of the upcoming book The Now Effect: How This Moment Can Change the Rest of Your Life. —  —  —  —  — Every moment of our lives our brains are…

We know of all the wonderful effects that a mindfulness meditation practice can have on our health and the health of our patients, but mindfulness isn’t appropriate for everyone. Or maybe I should say, certain forms of mindfulness aren’t appropriate for everyone. We recently launched a Mindfulness and Psychotherapy distance learning class with Ron Siegel, PsyD. The class is now closed for registrations, but we thank everyone who has expressed continued interest in it. In preparation for the class, we put together a video with Ron talking about some situations where mindfulness is not advisable. We’ve been getting so many…

I am always amazed when I read about innovative new technology for things that ten years ago I would never have imagined. Video games that help surgeons improve their skills, iPhone Apps for measuring happiness. I could go on and on, but you get the point. I recently read an article in BMC Psychiatry that documented a very brief, randomized, controlled pilot study looking at the use of the internet for teaching mindfulness meditation. Drs. A. Maercker and TM Gluck out of the University of Vienna, Austria and the University of Zurich, Switzerland, took 49 adults who were randomized into…

I have been thinking a lot about alternative paths to healing recently. Last week, we talked about a study comparing the effects of Lunesta (a medication for insomnia) to meditation. As many of readers pointed out, alternative therapies can be useful in that there are much fewer (or even no) side effects and in some cases these therapies have comparable results to pharmaceutical remedies. But what about specific effects of the individual alternative therapies? No two therapies work alike so they aren’t interchangeable. I’d like to share with you a study out of the journal Emotion but with the caveat…

Imagine a country where we no longer have to depend on medication to help manage depression, chronic pain, or insomnia. Lately, I’ve been seeing a trend of studies that are showing how mindfulness is just as effective as side-effect loaded medications. This latest study, conducted by Cynthia Gross, PhD and her colleagues from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota, has found some inspiring evidence that mindfulness may be just as powerful as the insomnia prescription medication, Lunesta. This randomized, controlled trial was conducted at the University of Minnesota’s health center where 30 adults, diagnosed with insomnia, were…

There have been countless studies on mindfulness with adults, but what about children? Is mindfulness for young kids and adolescents? If so, how do we introduce it and what are some effective ways of teaching it? A literature review about using mindfulness with children, published in Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry by Miles Thompson, DClinPsy and Jeremy Gauntlett-Gilbert, PhD, DClinPsy from the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath, England looked at these questions and pointed out useful ways to incorporate mindfulness into practice with young people. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Gauntlett-Gilbert had some helpful suggestions for tweaking common…